Submissions

Author Guidelines

Articles should be emailed as a Word document attachment to the General Editor, Paul R. Hinlicky (hinlicky@roanoke.edu) for initial review upon intention of submission.

Articles accepted for publication must also be submitted here online under the author's own username and account for completion of the online publication process.

Please include all information in submission process, including suggested keywords for general searchability.

Articles are to make an argument. Authors may address, exclusively or in combination, four primary areas of study: the theological exegesis of Scripture, history of doctrine, dogmatics, and missiology.

While challenging ideas should drive academic scholarship, the Promissio author also aims to educate readers. Authors are to avoid polemic, ad hominem, and non sequiturs and are rather to promote deliberation in the readership aimed at moving a theological argument forward productively.

Promissio requires meeting high scholarly standards; authors are to employ lucid terminology to explain and educate and as well as persuade.

Articles must cohere with the journal’s philosophy. (Please follow "home” link at the top of this page to the text of the journal's philosophy.)

Submissions must follow these guidelines:

• Within the introduction, authors should provide a descriptive discussion explaining what is at issue or in controversy, resulting in a clear thesis followed by a succinct methodological discussion indicating how the thesis will be demonstrated.
• The body shall be comprised of a presentation of evidence and analysis concluding with consideration of potential counterarguments.
• The conclusion will not be a summary of the article but instead offer a demonstration of the thesis with logical force.

Submissions must also include:

• a succinct author bio with contact information;
• a brief glossary of technical or foreign language terms, if needed;
• a list of works cited.

Submissions to Promissio should be prepared in Times New Roman, 12 point, and should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style with succinct footnoting in a Microsoft Word document with tracking (edits) on.

Authors are responsible for submitting a carefully proofed text (to be proofed again, should revision be required).

File Preparation

Please prepare all manuscript files with the article components in the following order:

For all Articles:

• Title of Article: Sub-title of Article.
• Article author name (without any degrees/titles here).
• Text body paragraphs of the article/editorial/review.
• Sub-titles or section titles interspersed between body paragraphs as appropriate/needed, whether specific words/phrases or section numbers in either Arabic or Roman numerals.
• At end of article/editorial/review, brief author biography in 1-3 sentences, beginning with author’s/reviewer’s name (include here any degrees/titles, perhaps prominent publications and/or other credentials).
• Include also at the end the footnotes with their corresponding superscripted numbers in text.
• Supplemental information about the intent of the article will catch the reader’s eye if it is incorporated into the first paragraph.

Article Titles & Sub-Titles

• Although a single, succinct title is often effective, the use of a sub-title can also be helpful. When using a sub-title, please be sure it is introduced a colon at the end of the main title.
• Avoid using an asterisk in the title. Any necessary bibliographic note or citation should be included as an initial unnumbered footnote.

Text

Avoid the suggestion of oral presentation. For example, avoid the use of first person and the use of contractions.

Capitalization.

• Do not use capitalization for the sake of emphasis.
• Use capitals in reference the Bible and books of the Bible. For example, Scripture, Gospel according to St. Mark (however, use lower case, gospel, in reference to the message of Christ.
• Use capitals in reference to institutional bodies, such as Institute of Lutheran Theology and Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Italics.

• The textual citation of published works should be in italics: e.g., The Book of Concord. However, citation of confessional symbols should appear in Roman type: e.g., the Small Catechism.
• Single words and short phrases in languages other than English will be italicized. Do not set them off in quotation marks.
• Books of the Bible should be capitalized but NOT italicized.

Quotations.

• Less than five typewritten lines may be set off in quotation marks; more than five lines should appear as a block quotation, indented, and without quotation marks.
• Use quotation marks to identify titles of essays cited in the text; use italics for titles of books and other complete publications not otherwise noted.

Scholarly abbreviations.

• While the use of scholarly abbreviations is acceptable in parentheses and in the footnotes, they should not be used in the text. For example, in place of “i.e.,” use “that is”; in place of “e.g.,” use “for example”; in place of “etc.,” use “and so forth.”

Diacritics.

• In spelling German ä, ö, and ü diacritics should be used, not ae, oe, ue.
• Diacritics should always be employed where appropriate, particularly in the citation of languages other than English.
• Care should be taken in the citation of Greek and Hebrew. Authors should use the Greek and Hebrew fonts available from the Society of Biblical Literature.

Spelling.

• Use “-ize” endings when given as an alternative to “–ise.”
• Use American form, not British; for example, savior, not saviour.

Dates and Numbers.

• 1990s; not 1990’s.
• Sixteenth century; not 16th century (at the beginning of a sentence).
• July 2024; not July, 2024.
• Sixty–seven; not 67; but use numerals for numbers over one hundred.

Acronyms.

• Avoid the use of acronyms. Cite the referent fully in the first usage. After that you may use the acronym.

Footnotes

In the text, references to the footnote numbers should appear in superscript.

The first citation of a work in the footnotes should include the complete bibliographical data—Author, Title: Sub-Title, volume & issue number/s (city of publication: publisher name, date of publication), page number/s.

For example:

• Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 57 vols. Eds.J.F.K. Knaake et al. (Weimar: Böhlau, 1883ff.) 2:45.6-10. (Hereafter cited as WA.)
• Luther's Works, American Edition, 55 vols. Eds. Pelikan and Lehmann (St Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia and fortress, 1955ff.) 2:45. (Hereafter cited as LW.)
• Corpus Reformatorum, 28 vols. Eds. C.G. Bretschneider et al. (Brunsvigae and Halis Saxorum: C.A. Schwetschke et Filium, 1834-60) 3:75-76. (Hereafter cited as CR.)

Nota bene: All footnotes should also be copied and pasted into the file itself at the end of the article, after the author biography. Please also leave all footnotes remaining in the automated notes program.

Submissions

Manuscripts will be submitted here through the online submission procedure after acceptance by the General Editor.

All manuscripts for publication are reviewed by two scholarly peers in the area of the subject matter.

Checklist of Additional Helpful File Preparations

• All submissions should include an abstract and any references or notes as part of the actual file text.
• The manuscript should be prepared textually and bibliographically according to published author guidelines.
• The manuscript must be considered fully completed by the author/editor upon submission for production.
• The spelling of any/all proper names or special terms should be checked for consistency and standardization.
• All/any footnotes should be checked for numerical consistency with all superscripted numbers in the text.
• All text (including titles, sub-titles, footnotes) should be set in 12 pt Times New Roman font.
• All text should be single spaced and contain no additional spacing either before or after any paragraph.
• You do not need to include any page formatting beyond specific textual usage (italics, superscript, subscript) and indented quotation paragraphs or partial paragraphs. Please do not use boldface for emphasis.
• All text should be set to left justified only, regardless of usage for title, sub-title or body text. Lengthy indented quotations of more than 4 lines may/should be identified and broken into a separate paragraph of text.
• Italics are not typically used on superscripted footnote numbers when with foreign words, titles, emphasis.
• Do not use a tab to indent new paragraphs at all.
• Do not use any column or page breaks at all.
• Do not include any empty or additional paragraph breaks or space (hard returns) between paragraphs of text. (In other words, do not place any extra spaces between paragraphs). Remove any/all extra/additional spaces and paragraph breaks from the entire manuscript file.
• Remove any/all other tabs (unless used for special formatting of a chart or list necessary with article [please identify accordingly and also provide a reference to original manuscript for production layout comparison]).
• Do not use any stylistic formatting for font or paragraph appearance style and/or size (other than any foreign language font faces as needed). All formatting production will conform to the publication’s editorial style. Please communicate any questions or specific needs/requirements for the article at the time of submission.

Questions?

Please contact: Martin A. Christiansen, Managing Editor / mchristiansen23@ilt.edu